Paris – Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams cruised into the French Open third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Teliana Pereira of Brazil.
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Nadal got off a sluggish start but once he got into his swing, he was in control.
“It was hard for me tactically to dictate points because he’s very talented”, Djokovic said.
With Maria Sharapova suspended, pending the outcome of a doping hearing, and several leading seeds knocked out early, Serena looms as the overwhelming favourite to claim a fourth title in the French capital.
The three-time French Open champion only dropped three games en route to the near-perfect victory.
Nishikori, a U.S. Open finalist in 2014, reached the quarterfinals in Paris a year ago.
No. 3 Angelique Kerber, who upset Williams in the Australian Open final in January, lost to 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Shortly after that was over Thursday, her older sister Venus entered the same French Open arena and won by the same score. She spent a lot more time on court, needing almost two hours to get past 82nd-ranked Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Seeded winners outside the Top 10 were No. 12 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 14 Ana Ivanovic, No. 15 Madison Keys, No. 18 Elina Svitolina, No. 22 Dominika Cibulkova who bageled Croat Ana Konjuh 6-0 in the third, and No. 29 Darya Kasatkina who topped Virginie Razzano in three.
After making the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2014, Bouchard lost in the first round previous year. But having been diagnosed with the debilitating Sjogren’s syndrome in 2011, playing on the slow red clay has proved to be a particularly hard challenge for the 35-year-old.
The sixth-seeded Halep broke Osaka at love for a 5-3 lead in the third set on Court Suzanne Lenglen and served out the win. Serena has also racked up just 22 unforced errors and 56 winners, numbers that make her even tougher to beat.
There still were some hiccups for Stan Wawrinka in the second round of the French Open.
Eighth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky, a French Open semifinalist a year ago, advanced to the third round at Roland Garros by beating Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-4. Williams will have the edge in serve and return, so Mladenovic will need to play inspired tennis to push her.
Halep has had her problems in Paris.
With Serena Williams about to start a second-set tiebreaker against Kristina Mladenovic, heavy rain has halted play in the French Open’s third round.
Trailing 5-0 in the second set and with Bacsinszky serving for the win, Bouchard got back into the match, saving a match point and earning two break points that would have leveled the score at 5-5 but she failed to convert.
Halep’s second serve is letting her down. Berdych defeated Malek Jaziri 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. The 35-year-old will meet Alizé Cornet for a spot in the Round of 16.
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293 Serena Williams’ number of Grand Slam wins to date.
